


Closest family

by HoldingHands (Sapphireth)



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn, Traveling Together, eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26902354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphireth/pseuds/HoldingHands
Summary: The Mandalorian and Cara Dune look for the child's people. Things happen.
Relationships: Cara Dune/The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)
Comments: 52
Kudos: 96





	1. Ch. 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I started writing this with the beginning of the year and got stuck. Writing shorter things helped me a lot, but I had to publish this one before season 2. Last chapter is still proving to be as hard to write as I anticipated. Wish me luck! Thanks for reading!

“What do you mean she’s on a job? A job where?”

“Off planet” responded Greef Karga, taking his glass of liquor to his lips.

The Mandalorian didn’t know what to say for a minute. The whole subject surprised him. The fact that Cara Dune had accepted a bounty hunter job surprised him. That she had found a ship to leave Nevarro on her own to hunt someone down surprised him. Not that he didn’t think her capable, of course not, but still, he hadn’t anticipated her sudden change of career. True, they hadn't been in contact for the last few weeks, but he thought he had to have hear some word if she decided to join the guild.

“Where did she get a ship?”

“Oh, I helped her with that, I called in a favor and now I have my own ship. It’s fantastic, if it weren’t for the money it costs to have her docked.”

“You lent Cara your ship?” the Mandalorian asked, incredulous.

“Of course not, she rented it. For a fair price.”

Din Djarin doubted that Greef had dared to swindle Cara Dune. The woman wasn’t someone to take lightly.

As if she had been waiting to be mentioned, Cara appeared in that moment through the door of the old cantina where Din had met with Greef Karga. She looked like hell. She was sweating, her hair went in every direction, her clothes were torn and her mouth had a pout to it. She was adorable.

Din recognized the exact moment she saw him, despite the fact that she tried to disguise her surprise. Her subtle change of posture and the corners of her mouth betrayed her. It was only for a second. She continued walking towards them with an annoyed expression.

“I quit!” she said. “Hey, Mando. Long time no see.”

“Hi, Cara” he replayed.

“You quit?” Greef said. “After just one job?”

“It took me forever to get to that bastard, and when I found him, the fighting was over in less than two minutes! Where’s the kid?” She sat between the two men and looked at the Mandalorian.

“So, what’s the problem? It was an easy prey.” Greef insisted.

“The kid’s in the Crest, sleeping, didn’t want to wake him” Din replayed.

“The problem was the journey back. That thing has more arms than I can count. It’s been a nightmare, I don’t know how you guys put up with it. I almost prefer to go back to work as a bodyguard.”

“I can arrange that.” said Greef.

“I said _almost_ , that’s just like babysitting adults. How is the little green bean?” Cara turned her full attention to Din again.

“He’s doing fine. He still gives me a hard time sometimes, we certainly could use a babysitter.”

“Really?”

“You interested?”

“Maybe” she seemed to considered it for a moment. “How much do you pay?”

Din thought about it for a minute, he had made the offer halfheartedly but now that he thought about it, it made sense. Help would be much appreciated. He didn't trust anyone for the job, but Cara already knew the kid and he trusted her, and she was always welcome in the Crest.

“If we share the daily responsibilities and you help me with the jobs, then we share the payment, 50/50.”

“Do I get to do the fight part too?”

“Of course”.

She put a thoughtful look, concentrating on something invisible laying on the table. But Din knew it was all pretense, she was playing hard to get and that both amused him and excited him.

“Ok, I suppose I could give it a try. Count me in.” She finally answered.

Din extended his right arm and she took it.

“Deal”.

“Deal” Greef said raising his glass.

The two warriors looked at him as if only then they remembered that he was still there.

____________

The following days, the Razor Crest proved to be a smaller ship than Din thought it to be. It was big enough for him and the kid. When an bounty gave him trouble he usually put them in carbonite and that solved it. But with Cara it was different. She was moving in. And she brought some things with her. Not much, to be fair. Just some clothes and a few personal items, and it all fitted into her backpack. But she needed a place to sleep that wasn’t between the vac cubicle and his armory.

Eventually they found a small room that served as a storeroom. Din managed to completely empty it and even put a cot that hanged from the wall, so it could collapse down to give her more space to move around.

Cara had never stayed for too long in the Razor Crest before. A couple of days from Sorgen to Arvala-7 to pick up Kuiil, and then to Nevarro to confront that bastard warlord.

"I didn't know you had a room for yourself." Cara said when Mando pointed to a closed door at their left.

"Where do you think I sleep?"

"I don't know. In an old cot laying around, somewhere in the ship?" she commented moving her hand in an ample rotating gesture.

"I sometimes like sleeping without my helmet on, so…"

"Oh" she understood. "Privacy."

"Yeah."

"And the kid?"

"He has his own pram, but he sleeps pretty much wherever he wants."

That's not exactly what she had meant but she accepted the answer. She wanted to know if the rules about his helmet had changed now that the kid and him were a Clan of two. Wasn't the little creature like his own child now? Weren't kids allowed to see their Mandalorian parent's faces? But asking these questions seemed somewhat inappropriate, a little too intimate. So she decided not to inquire further.

"Is this the shower?" she said when she discovered a thin pipe attached to a wall at the end of a corridor.

"Yes." Mando came closer and took in his hand the thin material of a curtain hanging at a side, it was an ugly green. "I'm sorry I couldn't install a proper door, there isn't space enough for the hinges."

"This will do. The place is hidden from the rest of the ship. And I know I can trust you." She turned to look at him. "Can't I?" she added lifting a corner of her mouth.

Mando crossed his arms over his chest and spread his legs. He was occupying all the space in the corridor, blocking her view of the rest of the ship.

"Can _I_ trust you?" he responded.

He wasn't exactly flirting, but she gladly accepted his witty retort with an amused smile.

She advanced a step towards him. He didn't recoil. Her chest was almost touching his arms. She reached a hand and for a second she let one finger rest on the hem of his helmet.

"You know all your secrets are safe with me" she said, lowering her tone of voice. Then she made to pass by his side and he let her. He looked over his shoulder on time to see her walking away, exaggerating the swaying of her hips.

Before turning a corner she heard a muffled huff.

Had he laughed?

____________

The Razor Crest's back seats had been empty for a long time. Sometimes the child liked to sit there and play with the many levers and buttons of the console. But most of the time he was content to stay on his pram, chewing the mythosaur pendant or any other toy Din had made for him.

Now, Cara sat there. She had made herself at home with ease. And it felt natural to have her around again. If she had noticed that he had moved forward one of the chairs, to align it with his, she didn’t say anything. She was a good copilot. She always understood his orders and only questioned them just in the right places.

_And she gets along with the kid, despite her insisting that she doesn’t do the “baby thing”. The kid seems to like her._

“So how many jobs left?” she said.

“Just one”

“Where?”

“Not far. Just two standard hours to get there.”

“Ok. You want me to try and put something together to eat?”

“Okey…” he replayed, but the hesitance was laying there and Cara picked it up.

“You don’t like my cooking, do you?” she said with a frank smile. “Look, I know the kitchen is not my forte. I’m better off kicking ass, but I’ll get better with practice.”

“No. It’s fine”.

“Yeah, you’ll see.” And with that she retreated to the back of the ship, where they had their stock of food and a small portable fire to cook the meals.


	2. Ch. 2

The planet they arrived on was dry and hot, for the most part of its rotation. It was far away from its sun just enough for life to be viable. It had to import water in the form of ice though, so it had some spaceports, mostly for goods transport. It made a perfect hiding place for the guy they were after. He was from a species with a thick hard skin that could tolerate this weather pretty well.

“You sure it’s safe for the kid to come along?” Cara said behind him in the ramp of the ship, hanging her weapon on her shoulder, with the child walking beside her.

“Safer than leaving him here alone.”

Cara knew she could offer to stay here with the baby, but she needed to stretch her legs, needed some action or she would go crazy. Mando saved her from saying that out loud.

“This will be easy. This planet has got little population and I doubt we will encounter somebody who’s any real danger here.”

“Unless we’ve been followed.”

Mando stopped to look at her.

“If that’s the case, we will be able to see them coming from a mile.”

He was right, even the docking bays were separated from each other a pretty safe distance.

The walking to the nearest town was uncomfortable with all that hot air and all the dust it carried. Cara was sure if she blew her nose it would come a dark brown mess on her handkerchief. She was impressed with the child. He was following their pacing well enough without complaining, even if it was obvious that he was tired and as hot as she was. She was desperate to get to the cantina and swallow two or three goblets of that cold water in a row.

To her dismay, they didn’t go in the cantina’s direction. In fact, they passed by it and went into the labyrinth of alleys that started at the back of the building. Al least they were narrow passages that provided a very wellcome shadow.

Mando produced a tracker from some hidden pocket and activated it. A red blinking light pointed out that their asset was near. The sign led them to an intersection where he stopped so abruptly that Cara almost collided with his back. Instinctively, she made sure that the kid was safe behind her, and put her hand on her rifle’s handle. Voices could be heard around the corner. Mando turned off the tracker so that it didn’t give them away and took his blaster in his hand.

In an instant, he stepped outside their hiding place and was threatening whoever had been speaking, and urged him to hold his hands and surrender.

Several individuals of different species run away and disappeared through different alleyways. Cara followed them with her eyes, to check that no one had second ideas.

In the meantime, she heard the guy talking to Mando. Was he trying to talk his way out? Poor fellow didn’t know who he was playing with. The Mandalorian made a gesture with his blaster to indicate the other man to start walking, in her direction.

That’s when she saw, with the corner of her eye, something on a nearby roof, a shadow, a figure covered from head to toe. Her instincts soared, and in less than two seconds she had drawn her rifle and shot. The bastard fell over the edge of the roof and landed with a thud on the floor, his own weapon fallen beside him. Their prey gulped looking at her, visibly terrified. He was a humanoid with a face that resembled that of a reptile, a lizard. Trandoshan? No, this was something different. Anyway, he looked way less aggressive, and much more prone to obey them on their way back to the Crest.

Though he proved to be a little too talkative and stupid when, about to board the ship, he said.

“What is that thing, by the way?” he was eyeing the baby. “Is that a pet?”

That earned him a hard push of Mando’s blaster in the back.

“Shut up!”

“Ok, ok.”

Cara took the child protectively in her arm, while keeping her weapon aimed at him.

“Is it yours?”

“Shut up!” this time it was Cara’s turn to hit him.

Mando opened the ramp and the four of them entered the ship.

The asset was immediately and carelessly pushed to the ground and handcuffed to the back of the cockpit, where they could keep an eye on him.

“Ok, I’m done." she said. "The kid needs his rest and I’m all sweaty. I’ll go put him to sleep and then freshen up myself. Can you handle the asshole?”

“Of course.”

Then she exited towards the back of the ship, but the door didn’t close fast enough before she heard the asshole comment:

“What a wench! Where did you get her? I bet she’s the feisty type in the sack.”

Anger bubbled within her, and she was tempted to come back and show him how feisty she could be, when she heard an unmistakable thump. They didn’t hear him again for the rest or the journey.

\-----

The cantina on Nevarro was dark, as usual, full of people from all around the galaxy, as usual, and Greef Karga, former magistrate and now chief of the Bounty Hunters Guild, was seated at his table, as usual.

"Hey!" he said when Din and Cara approached him. "My favourite duo!"

“Hi, Greef.” Cara said.

“You were fast this time. I think you broke your own record.”

Din gave a brief look at his partner before saying:

“I had help.”

She answered him with a good humored half smile that narrowed her eyes. Of course she couldn’t see that he was smiling too below his helmet.

They took a seat at the table and Greef Karga called for a waiter with a flick of his hand.

“And how is this little guy doing?” He moved his fingers towards the child, who reached with his own hand from Din’s arms and made a small cooing sound of recognition.

“He’s doing fine. Some days he’s more lively than others.”

“You’re giving your dad a hard time, ah?”

The bartender came with two drinks, one for Cara and one for Greef.

“So, how was it? The’ve told me that you finished all three of the jobs.”

“We had no problem. Do you have the money?”

Greef put their payment on the table. It was the amount they had agreed. Good.

“Always to the point.”

“Yeah. What else do you have for us?”

“Right now I only have one job left.”

“Only one?”

“Yes. Apparently a lot of hunters have suddenly gone out of the holes they were hiding in.”

“And what is this job about?”

“She’s a thief. An auction house is looking for her because it seems that she stole some of their most precious art pieces.”

“An art thief?” asked Cara, disappointment clear on her voice.

“That’s all I’ve got at the moment. Take it or leave it.”

“We’ll take it.” Din said. Greef gave him the disk.

“She was last seen near the Sinta System or maybe Nal Hutta.”

“The Hutt Space.” Cara said.

“Makes sense.” Din added.

Greef just lifted his hands in a helpless sign.

“So. How is your new life together going?” he said, changing the subject.

Cara, who was taking a long gulp of her drink, coughed loudly, and almost spit it out. Din spared a look at her, then looked at Greef again.

“We’re not together.”

“I know, I know. That’s not what I meant. Are you ok?” he palmed Cara on her back.

“Yes, yes. I just wasn’t expecting that.”

“But you two are living together, literally. I mean, Cara moved into the Razor Crest and that’s where you live so… How is it going? Does it work, your partnership?”

“It works very well.” Din replayed.

“Yeah. You said so, we brought you three jobs in record time.”

“The ship is not very big.”

“But it’s enough, it’s fine. Hey, I even have my own room, and that’s definitely an improvement from the times when I had to sleep out in the open.”

Greef noded. “Great. So, when are you two leaving? Do you have time for another round of drinks?”

“We’re leaving tomorrow” Din said rising from his chair.

She rose too. “And thank you for the offer but we can't, we’re going on a date tonight.”

“What?”

“See you around, Greef.” She winked at him, and they left.

\-----

Cara stole a glance at her reflection in the mirror for the third time. Should she tie her hair up in a ponytail? Or should she leave it down? She undid her braid then made it again. She felt the most comfortable with her hair braided like that. And she felt confident in her outfit. A white tank top over her black sports bra, black tights that defined her well built legs and boots that could break a jaw with just one kick.

She felt powerful walking down the ramp of the Crest. Mando was waiting for her at the other end. He was wearing comfortable clothes too. A sleeveless t-shirt and dark loose trousers. No armor tonight, they had agreed. The kid was sleeping sound and safe inside of the ship, which guaranteed no distractions. It was a warm evening and a soft breeze brought the sounds and the fragrances of the nearby forest. The sky was clear and a million stars shone above their heads.

She felt his eyes on her all the way until she reached him. She stopped less than a foot apart and since he was a bit taller than her, she had to tilt her head up. She looked at his visor as if she could tell exactly where his eyes were.

"Are you ready?" he said looking down at her.

"Allways." she replayed.

He turned and walked a few steps away, stretching his arms and shoulders with rotating movements. Cara couldn't help but notice the muscles on his back. He was lean, not like these bulky beasts that liked to show off whenever they could, his muscles were strong and well defined. He was built more like a grasshopper, yes, quick and ready to jump at any moment.

She circled him and he did the same. Smiling, Cara took a defensive stance, leveling her fists with her face, the left one in front of the other. Mando stopped, then resumed his circle, changing direction.

"Are you going to dance in circles all night?" she asked to provoke him.

He didn't answer, and didn't stop walking around her. Her smile widened. Ok, she was going to take the bait. She launched forward, aiming to grab his wrist, but he was faster and took her forearm in return, forcing her to spin over herself to try and escape his grip. With her back to his chest, she threw her free elbow and hit him in the ribs. He grunt and released her, stepping back.

He was strong but she was too, and this was going to be fun. This time he was the first to move. He punched her on her face, twice, and she punched him on his stomach, but before he could recover she kicked his shin. She wasn't going to let him breath, she attacked fast throwing punches to his front and shoulders, given that she couldn't hit his face. Though when she was about to smash his helmet with both her hands clasped together, he grasped her mid section, pushing them to the ground.

They rolled, each one trying to get on top. She succeeded first, yanked the front of his shirt almost ripping it apart, a small part of her brain registered his bare chest, no trace of hair, and prepared to land another blow to his head. But he grabbed her leg, pulled, and suddenly he was the one on top. The landing on the dirt left her momentarily breathless. He grabbed her wrists over her head, she struggled to free herself from him, but he pinned her with his weight. He was covering her body with his, she could smell the heat coming from him, the sweat, and something else.

"Do you yield?" he said with humor in his voice.

She took a second to breath then growled "Never!" And with great effort she locked one of her legs with one of his and twisted it in a way she knew would cause pain.

It worked, he let her go. They kept throwing punches, neither of them holding back. It was different fighting without any piece of armor or any kind of protection on. Both would be covered in bruises come morning. But _kriff_ if it wasn't worth it.

They were panting. He threw himself at her, and it seemed that he was going for her side but then he turned and hit her with all the force of his shoulder. That made her lose her balance and end up against a tree. He took advantage of the distraction to try and grab her again, but she spun around and seized him by his neck. He fought to be free from her strong arms and she tightened her grip. He was going to suffocate.

He moved his arms around and finally got to hit the bark of the tree with his open palm. She loosened her grip a bit and he could breathe again.

"I yield" he said with a strangled voice.

She let go of him immediately and he coughed.

"I yield" he said more firmly. He bent his waist and put his hands on his knees.

Cara approached him fearing that something was wrong. Mando was breathing funny. But then she realized that he was laughing. It wasn't a loud laughter. It was more like air trying to escape his throat.

"You ok?" she asked.

"Yeah." He straightened up and put a hand on her shoulder. "One of the best fights I've ever had."

"Yeah, it's been fun." They walked side by side towards the ship and stopped for a moment before going in. He seemed about to say something, but he ended up just looking at her, as if trying to put his thoughts into words. Or maybe she had something on her face because he lifted his hand to her cheekbone, not really touching her.

He cleared his throat. "You should put some ice on that or tomorrow you'll be sporting a beautiful black eye."

Her stomach jumped at _beautiful_.

"Yeah, you too" she said pointing at his ribs.

He sighed and looked up, absentmindedly putting a hand to his ribs, at the million stars there. She followed his gaze.

"When I was little I wondered if there was people living in all the planets of the galaxy."

He chuckled. "All the children believe that."

"I like being up there, flying with you two. Before, it was all war and death and survival. I never could actually appreciate the peace of space."

"Yes, it's nice."

"Yeah." Another moment of silence. Not awkward silence. Companionable, bonding, nice silence.

"You know what?" he said before he climbed the ramp. "We should go on dates more often."

She gave him a wide smile and lightly shook her head.

"Good night, Cara" he said, and went to check on the baby.

She went to her room, cleaned herself with a damp towel and changed her clothes.

She still was wearing that smile when she got into her bed.


	3. Ch. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The travels continue.

"I think we should try the Sinta System first." Cara was saying. From the back of his chair, she leaned over the map of the sector and pointed to a spot in the Mid Rim.

"That's because you don't want to go into the Hutt Space."

"Yes, well, forgive me for not wanting to jump head first in the middle of those murderous, filthy liars, sons of a Zilo Beast business."

"A what?"

"It doesn't matter what. I say we try the easy way first."

"Neither Sinta nor Nal Hutta are easy."

"I know. A freezing glacier or a suppressive swamp. How charming."

"I don't think she's already in Sinta. The last spot she was seen at? Do you really think she's still there?"

"I don't know, maybe."

"Or maybe," he zoomed in to another part of the map. "She's gone to an entire different planet by now."

Cara was standing very close to him, to reach the map. When she looked at him, he could see she was seeing past him. He also was presented with a very close look of the tattoo on her cheek. The symbol of the Rebellion. A testimony of her past. Which made him dread what he was going to say next.

"We're going to go to Vandor."

She came back from wherever her thoughts had been and focused on his helmet again. She went silent for a moment, then she recovered.

"Why do you think she's there?"

"I have a… feeling."

"A feeling."

"We will know for sure as soon as we enter the atmosphere of the planet. The tracker will tell us if we're right."

"And if it doesn't give any signal?"

"We won't even have to land."

"Ok." she finally said.

She had accepted but Din knew something was wrong.

"Have you been to Vandor before?" he asked with a soft voice.

"Once." She was upset, that was obvious.

"With the Shock Troopers?"

"Yes. It didn't have a happy ending. We lost many of us."

"I'm sorry. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really. But thank you."

"Cara," he took a deep breath. "I'm going to need you to stay in the ship this time."

"What? No."

"The planet is free from imperial influence now, but you know there are still some remnants. It's dangerous."

"That's why you need me there with you!"

"It's dangerous for you!" he pointed to her arm tattoo.

"I can hide it like the last time, it won't be a problem."

"And what about this one?" he reached a hand to her face and touched her cheek with his finger. She was startled.

"It's too small. No one will notice."

He went a step closer and lowered his voice.

"I need you to stay here with the child. It's too risky." He knew it was a low blow. But it was also his last card to play. He couldn't forbid her to go wherever she wanted and he knew she could take care of herself. But there was no way he was going to risk both her life and the baby's. He watched her debate with herself, taking slow breaths trying to calm herself. She probably hated him right now. But she knew he was right.

"Ok," she said, not looking at him. "I understand." She took her seat at the console. "I'll calculate the coordinates".

As soon as they came near enough to the planet's airspace, Din activated the fob and after a couple of seconds, it started to beep and blink its red light. Vandor was covered in mountains, most of them so high that they were permanently under a thick blanket of snow. They docked the Crest in one of the bays near Fort Ypso, a kind of town, or better, a settlement, that hanged from the steep hillsides. It was already getting dark, and dozens of lights revealed different buildings and platforms, connected to one another by lots of bridges. Some looked solid, some did not.

Din took with him a blaster and a long knife that he hid in his boot.

"Be careful and, as long as I'm out, seal the ship."

Cara noded. Din patted the child's round head.

"You behave, little womp rat."

He felt the urge to touch Cara's hand. But instead he turned and walked out of the ship.

The "Lodge", the local bar, hadn't changed much since the years of imperial occupation. The whole area was left pretty much alone. All kinds of people could be found there. None of them with a decent way of living. An old man eyed him before entering the cantina. He better not be considering to steal his armour. Inside, Din tried to keep a low profile, his back to the wall, staying in the shadows, looking for a dark haired woman with the distinctive blue skin and red eyes of the Chiss. The eyes could be harder to identify in the distance and the skin could be mistaken by a Pantoran's one. So, very carefully, he checked the tracker again. Yes, she was there.

He turned a corner and passed by a group of individuals playing cards at a table. They were yelling threatens to one another adding to the insufferable noise of the fleapit. He was momentarily distracted by the crash of a cup on one of the players head when he saw movement on the other end of the room. Someone was running through the crowd towards a small window. Din caught a glimpse of a blue face before the figure climbed out.

He run to the door. He went out just in time to see the woman jump over a handrail, down to the lower levels. Climbing down was difficult but she moved very quickly between the foundations that supported the platforms. Damn she was fast. Din couldn't let her escape. So he let himself fall two or three meters down and took hold of a rafter in the last second, gaining ground. She arrived first to the platform below them but he followed much closer now.

She run to one of the suspension bridges. He was going to catch her. Then they reached a docking bay at the end of the passage and suddenly she turned around and kicked him hard in his head. The helmet offered some protection but she had caught him off guard and lose balance. She took advantage of those precious seconds and run in the opposite direction, walking back the way they had come. Din cursed and drew his whip. He threw it at her but she dodged it.

He cursed again and continued chasing her. She reached the base of a building and got in between the structure and the wall rock and disappeared. He followed.

"Stop right there!" he shouted. He was losing his patience. She was going to get away. And he had thought it would be easy. He took his blaster out.

A little further he heard grunts and voices.

"Oh, no, you're not going anyway, miss."

A female voice answered in a foreign language that Din had never heard before. He couldn't be more surprised at what he found when he caught up with her.

She was crouched in the floor, ready to jump over the old man he had crossed in the bar. Pure instinct made him react and he shot the woman, who fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Jeez" the man said. "That was close, I couldn't had stopped her for much longer."

Din didn't put away his blaster. He came next to the woman and checked she was still breathing. The other man rested his back on the wall and crossed his arms on his chest. Despite his age, he seemed fit, with strong arms and firm hands.

"Why did you help me?" Din said. "I saw you before."

"Yes, I remember."

"Do I know you?"

The man laughed. It was a strong laughter. He tried to speak. "It's been a long -hahaha- a long time since somebody asked me that."

Din waited in silence for him to finish.

"You must have met one of my brothers."

Din tied the woman's hands at her back and secured her with a rope to his own waist.

"I don't think so. What I think is that you are a bounty hunter too."

The man opened his hands in surrender. "Old habits die hard."

"Were you after her too?"

"No. I'm retired."

"How can I thank you for your help? We could split the bounty."

"No, no. I did it for old time's sake. There's not much fun left for a codger like me here. In fact, I'm leaving this place as soon as possible. I'm fed up with this _kriffing_ weather. Well, take care, buddy. And good luck."

"Wait. I can give you a ride."

The older man halt. "Well thank you. That would be great. Are you sure?"

"Yeah".

"I'm Tekk" he said holding his hand out.

Din took it. "You can call me Mando."

"Mando the Mandalorian" he laughed again.

The woman woke and, when she saw that she had manacles restraining her hands, she struggled and tried to free herself.

"Stay put," Din ordered. "Or I'll stun you again. Now, move."

It took them a little while to get to the Crest, after grabbing Tekk's bag from the cantina. They hadn't been able to dock the ship near the town because the best spots where already taken by the syndicates. But when they arrived Din's blood run cold.

The side door of the ship was opened and they heard someone shooting inside.

"Come on!" Din run towards it, forcing his prisoner to run too, and Tekk followed suit.

"Cara!" Din shouted. He found her on the floor, against the door of the armory, and a guy, dead, a few feet away. "Cara." He knelt beside her. Her shoulder and arm were soaking in blood. "What happened?" She had an ugly looking burn on her shoulder, between the collar and the pauldron. It wasn't deep but it could cause an infection. "Where's the kid?"

"Safe." She pointed to the locked compartment where they sometimes put the kid to sleep.

"You're hurt."

"It's just a bruise" she said, but she was breathing hard. She was about to say something else when she saw Din's new company at his back and she drew her blaster.

"No, no, it's ok, he's a friend." He stopped her. Tekk was behind the Chiss woman, in case she tried to flee. "Just let me take care of one thing."

Din freed the woman from the rope, then put her on a cubicle at the wall. And froze her in carbonite. Then went back to Cara. He helped her to a more comfortable position.

"This is Tekk. This is Cara Dune."

Tekk nodded his head, but Cara looked at Din.

"I don't understand."

"Long story, I'll explain later. First we need to address your wound. Tekk, can you take this bastard out and lock the door, please?"

"Sure."

"Who is he? Do you trust him?"

"Yes. Now, be quiet and let me take a look at your shoulder."

"I'm alright, it's just a scratch."

"I think I have a medpack here." He went for a drawer but before he reached it something made a loud noise inside of the kid's compartment.

"He must be scared."

Din opened the door and took the baby in his arms.

"It's alright Bean, it's over. You've been very brave." Cara said comforting the cute green alien. Din took him to her. "You've been a big boy." Her voice was tender, Din had never listened to her talk like that, even to the child. The baby stretched his little arms to her. Din thought that he wanted for her to take him but the kid put one hand on Cara's shoulder and the wound began to heal, slowly, until there was almost no trace of it.

" _Kriff_ ," Tekk said. "What was that? Who is he?"

"We don't know." Din sat on the floor next to Cara. Tekk sat too.

"How did he do that?"

"We don't know either." Din answered again despite the looks Cara was giving him. "We're looking for his people. But don't have a clue who they are or where they can be."

"You don't have much to work with, then, ah? How are you going to find them? Seems impossible."

"We do think he has something to do with the Jedi. You know? The old order of wizards."

"I know who they were, and they weren't wizards."

"You knew them?" Cara asked, surprised.

"I met a few a long time ago, when I was a kid during the Clone Wars. It seems like it happened in another life." Tekk's eyes wandered for a moment, lost in old times. "But they are no more, they were all killed. I'm sorry."

"What?"

"All of them?"

"How do you know that?"

"Wait a minute. You said you were a kid during the Clone Wars. _I_ was a kid during the Clone Wars and, no offence, but you look older than I am."

Tekk had a sad smile on his face.

"That's because…" he hesitated. "That's because… I'm a clone. We were engineered to age twice as fast as any normal human. My number was TK-1387 back then."

"TK… Tekk."

They fell silent. Din felt Cara tense by his side. If Tekk was a clone, did it mean he was an imperial soldier?

"Are you sure all of them were killed?" Cara asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. I know first hand because it was my brothers who killed them."

Cara took hold of her blaster, but Din put a calming hand over the weapon.

"As I said, I was still a kid when it happened. I hadn't completed my training and I wasn't allowed into battle yet. I once met General Kenobi and General Skywalker. I admired them. They were so skilled and so powerful with their lightsabers. But then one day it all changed. We were told that the Jedi were traitors, that they were working against the Republic. I couldn't believe that. Overnight we went from being allies to being enemies. I refused to believe that. I escaped from my home in Kamino, thanks to Captain Rex, who took care of me and explained me what really happened."

"What happened?"

"Seems like all the clones had an implant on their brains, and someone had used it to control them. Captain Rex and several more clones had managed to take it out before the mass execution was ordered. We children were lucky, ours hadn't been activated yet."

"So, someone ordered the extermination of the Jedi. They killed them all and erased them from the memories of people and from history. They're only a legend now."

"And do you think he is a Jedi?"

"He has some power in him, I don't know. Maybe."

Eventually Din found a place for Tekk to sleep while the Crest took them to a new destination. The small ship was starting to feel crowded. For a man like him, who had traveled alone for a long time, this was new, taking charge of so many people.

It had been a long day, but before he could hit the bed there was one last thing he had to do. He knocked on Cara's door.

"Yes?" came her voice.

"It's me."

"Come in."

He opened the door and stopped on his tracks. For a moment he had a vision of Cara's naked back before she pulled a shirt on. She was wearing the shortest pair of pants he had ever seen, and nothing more.

"I'm sorry, I-I'll come back later."

"Don't be silly. Come in." She adjusted her shirt over her hips and turned around. "I've lived with a bunch of men long enough to not care too much for modesty. Besides we're not teenagers any more. Hey, my eyes are up here."

"Sorry." He lifted his head to look back at her face. He did feel like a hormone driven teenager right now. He cleared his throat."I…"

"Did you want something?"

He forced himself to focus. "Er… yes. How's your shoulder?"

She sat on her bed. "It's fine. Completely healed, not a scratch." She showed him her shoulder in what he supposed was a seductive way, but suddenly every move she made looked seductive to him, so he couldn't really tell. She liked messing around with him. She patted the mattress next to her, inviting him to have a seat. "Here, I wanted to talk to you too."

Against his better judgement, Din followed her lead. "What about?"

"I'm sorry. Before, I _farked_ it up, I should have stayed in the ship, as you said."

"No. It's alright. But I want to know what happened."

"I heard noises out of the ship. Those two men were trying to get inside but every door was sealed. So apparently they decided to break through the walls. They were pulling apart the panels of the upper floor." she pointed to the ceiling.

Din looked at the door, and considered going and see the damage for himself.

"It's alright. I just checked it out. You'll have to replace a couple of bolts, nothing serious."

But there was more to the story, he needed to know. "Were there more than the dead one?"

"I counted two. The dead one and a coward that run away when he saw me out of the ship, blaster in hand. I bet they didn't expect me."

"You went out of the ship." He tried not to use a sharp tone.

"Yes. I locked the baby away first, then I went out. They were going to break a hole through the walls of the ship. I thought it would be a good idea to stop it." It's not like she had to justify what she did, he was sure she had done what she thought was best, but it sounded like she was doing exactly that.

"You're right, I understand."

"You do?"

"I probably would had done the same."

"Even if you weren't supposed to open the door because it's safer inside?"

"Of course."

"You're not good at following orders either, are you?" Her voice was playful now.

"Actually, I am."

She stared at him in disbelief.

"I was scared before."

"Why?"

"When I saw you in the floor covered in blood. For a moment, I thought…"

"It's ok. I'm ok." She nudged his arm with her good shoulder. When he didn't say anything she leaned on him, and something melted in his chest.

He was exhausted when he hit his bed that night. He didn't even change his clothes, just took off the armor.

But when he closed his eyes, of all the events of the day, of all that they had lived through, the last thing that crossed his mind before he drifted off to sleep, was the image of Cara's legs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if you've watched The Clone Wars. If you haven't (go watch it right now), I hope this didn't spoil anything important.  
> I hope too to be doing well with the slow burn.  
> Thank you very much if you're still there. I appreciate all your comments and kudos, I assure you, they make every author's day.


	4. Ch. 4

The lights went off, then on again.

Cara was trying to not fall off her seat, clutching the baby to her chest, while Mando drove the ship as fast as he could after escaping an attack on Tekk's planet of destination.

"That was close. Are you sure we lost them?" she shouted.

"I hit them on one of the engines. There's no way they can follow us with one engine short."

"What about our damages?"

"I'm checking. Superficial scratches. A fire in the tail. The lighting system is malfunctioning." He pushed some buttons, pulled some levers, checked again. "Ok, the fire's put out. But something's off with some of the internal circuits. Let me see." He examined more controls at the back of the cockpit.

"Ok, I'll look around the rest of the ship and see if everything is in order."

Cara went to the end of the upper floor. Fortunately, none of the external damage showed on the inside. Several items had fallen from where they were stored. She put it all away, even the child helped in his own odd, cute way. He seemed to understand that something was wrong. Cara wondered if he really understood what they said or if he simply picked on their tones and moods.

The lower level was in one piece too. The armory had remained closed, by some miracle, and none of the weapons had been scattered around.

She reheated a pot of stew she had cooked earlier. The baby was going to be hungry soon and they would definitely feel better with something warm in their bellies.

She helped the child eat his bowl. He was perfectly capable of doing it by himself, but Cara secretly enjoyed feeding him. She grabbed another plate for her and they went back to the cockpit to check on Mando and his progress.

He closed a panel and said "Something smells good", and made a pleasant sound. "Mm."

That made her smile in triumph. She knew she would get better at cooking, eventually.

"I saved a ration for you. Everything alright?"

"No. The air conditioning system is faulty." He went back to the pilot seat, she followed. "I've rebooted it but it doesn't start. I'm positive the circuit is fried."

"We need to get to the closest planet and get it repaired. We won't survive long without heating."

"I know, I'm searching. The bad news are that not everyone has that kind of spare parts." He exhaled. "The nearest planet in which we can find them is at least five and a half hours away."

Five and a half hours of increasing coldness that would slowly freeze them in their sleep.

"We can make it" she said, trying to sound confident.

"You better put your warmest clothes on. It's going to be a long night."

As if on cue, the baby yawned widely.

"I probably should take him with me and let him sleep in my bed" he added.

Yes, the little one was going to need the extra warmth, and sharing his dad's body heat was the best idea. In fact, they should all share their body heat to make sure they survived this one.

"Actually," he said. "All three of us should stay together until we arrive." He hesitated for a beat. "If you're ok with that."

He had read her mind.

"I'm pretty fond of being alive so, yeah, I'm ok with that." She patted lightly on his shoulder. "I'll go get my blankets."

His bunk was a little wider than her bed, just enough to fit them both and the baby, not comfortably, but there wasn't really anything else they could do about it. He wrapped the child in a soft blanket cut down just for his size. The baby liked to take naps enveloped in it.

Mando had already taken his armor off and had put on some warm looking clothes. She didn't really have sleeping clothes. She just slept in a comfy t-shirt and her underwear and that was it. She supposed Mando simply slept in whatever he wore under his armor, or maybe in the clothes he used to train, or maybe he really had pajamas. She didn't know. Anyway, today he had chosen to wear some extra clothes on. As well as she had done.

She extended her blankets over the bed. "Which side do you prefer?"

He looked at her, apparently startled by the question, that she knew was inconsequential. But it was her way to lighten up the mood.

"I don't care. Suit yourself" he answered.

She climbed onto the bed and laid there with her back to the wall. Mando brought her the baby, who leaned his head to one side, puzzled to see her there in his dad's bed. She took him in her arms and put a finger to his tiny nose.

"I hope you don't mind."

"He's happy to have you here." Mando sat to take his boots off.

_And you?_ She thought. _Are you happy, or very uncomfortable to have me here?_

He dimmed the lights, then went under the covers too, securing the baby between them both. The little thing looked at them and smiled, then faced Cara and rested his hands and head on her chest. She arched an eyebrow and Mando huffed. He covered them with the blankets, making sure they went over her back. She took the opportunity to snuggle closer so he had his arm around her. She waited to see if he'd move it away. He didn't. She sighed and felt him relax too. The kid was making soothing baby noises. Maybe it helped him go to sleep.

They sure made her feel drowsy. She closed her eyes and didn't even notice when she fell asleep too. In the back of her mind, she thought she heard a voice whisper "Goodnight, Cara."

Hours later, she awoke with a freezing nose. She put it under the covers. The next time they went to a market she would make sure to buy a woolen hat. It was nice under the covers.

The baby had squeezed down and was now against her stomach. She checked on him.

"He's alright." Mando's voice said. It was dark, it sounded very close. Her heart sped up a little.

"How far are we?"

"We're almost there."

They'd made it, they had survived.

"I'm sorry. Did I wake you?" she asked.

"No, I was already awake."

"Can't sleep?"

"I slept a few hours, just too many things in my head."

In the low light she barely could make the contour of his helmet. It wasn't exactly pointing at her but close. _What would he do if she tried to pull it off?_ she thought, _would he let her do it? Was the darkness enough cover? If she did it in the dark, would it still be considered taking his helmet in front of someone?_

The hand at her waist twitched a tiny bit. It hovered over her side, leaving a path of heat until it reached her hair and it touched her braid. The Mandalorian's fingers caressed the braid and played with the loose strands.

She held her breath, he had never been this bold with her, this intimate. Their friendship run deep and genuine, and she had accepted it like a cherished gift. But this was… What did he think about it? Did he feel the same?

"Is this an Alderaanian braid? I know they are important to your culture" he asked in a quiet voice.

The question surprised her.

"I suppose it is. It's the style of braid that my mother used to do my hair, only one side, she used to braid both sides when I was little. It's a simple style with three or four strands. There are much complex ones." Was she talking too much? She hadn't intended to be so specific.

He hadn't stopped touching her hair, it made it difficult for her to focus.

"Do you miss them? Your family?" Now he was looking directly at her through his visor.

"Yes, of course. Sometimes, when I think of it." She swallowed. "It's been almost 10 years now. My life has changed so much. It seems like a lifetime ago." It seemed like a lifetime ago but, at the same time, it felt like yesterday. The anger was still there, the nostalgia, the sorrow.

"What about you? Do you miss Mandalore?"

The hand went back to her waist.

He exhaled.

"Yes. I don't even remember how many years since I left."

"Were you happy, with your new family?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, I suppose I was. They adopted me. The whole Clan adopted me. I was their only foundling that year. I had never seen a Mandalorian before, they were big, they were strong and they would protect me. I felt safe."

"Did you have Mandalorian parents?"

"The man who found me, he took me home with his family, with his wife. They became my parents. They raised me. Though really, it's the whole Clan that raises the children."

"And now you have your own Clan."

He lifted the covers a bit and took a look at the small bundle that slept peacefully between them. "A Clan of two. The smallest Clan I've ever seen."

"It will grow, you'll find more." She thought for a moment. "Hey, you said that you were the Clan's only foundling that year."

He nodded.

"I'm curious. It's just the foundlings, or do Mandalorian make their own babies?"

"What?"

She pretended to sound serious but her smile betrayed her.

"You're kidding me. Of course we make our own babies, as you put it."

"Really? How?"

"I don't think I have to explain you how."

"No, I mean, with the helmet and all that." She pointed at the general direction of his head.

"The helmet's not a problem."

"I don't believe you. You mean you never do things like, I don't know, kissing? That's cold."

"We can kiss."

"How?"

"I'll show you."

Then he bowed his head and carefully brought her forehead to his.

"Breath with me."

She closed her eyes. In the silence of space, in the cocoon of their bed, she could hear his breathing. Slow, calm. She felt his hand on the back of her neck. Tender, burning. She smelt his scent. Warm, masculine. It was so very intimate. It was overwhelming how aware of his presence she was. There was no hurry to move apart. They just felt one another, their proximity, their shared warmth. For a second it was like being back home again. She was a lively girl, eager to fight and change the world for the better, to confront whomever she needed to and work for a good future for her family. And he? He was a brave boy who no longer wanted to feel afraid of everything, who couldn't wait to swear his oath to this Creed, to this people who had given him a new life.

When she opened her eyes she swore she could look directly into his eyes through the visor, and see him, for what he really was. She swore that he was looking at her eyes, and saw her for what she really was.

"Did you just kissed me?" she said with a voice so soft it was almost soundless.

"I… I did."

"It was nice."

"Yeah."

His chest rose and fell visibly. Was his heart pounding as hard as hers?

"Let me show you how it's done in the rest of the galaxy."

She took his hand and, very slowly, she pulled at his gloved fingers, one by one, until it all came off. She put his hand on her cheek and let him feel her. Then she deposited soft kisses on every finger. She let him caress her lips. His skin sent shivers down her spine. She pressed her mouth to his palm, in different places, making wet, kissing noises, following a path to his wrist. She looked at him in the eye while she pulled at his sleeve to reveal a little more of his forearm, and kissed him there.

He draw her to his chest. "Cara" he sighed her name.

She smoothed her face on his shirt. He held her there, next to his heart. And her mouth found his throat, and kissed it. He made a strangled sound and his adam's apple bobbed. She sighed her heated breath and he angled his head to give her better access, his hand gripping hard at her shirt, pulling her closer. She opened her mouth over his skin. And something moved at their stomachs and gave an uncomfortable whimper.

"Oh, _kriff_ , the child!" she pulled away.

"What?"

The little creature had gotten trapped between them and he was claiming his space.

"I'm sorry buddy. Are you alright?" Cara brought him to her face level, careful not to pull him completely out of the covers. She laid with her back to the mattress and Mando rested on his elbow by their side, their bodies still touching, both still breathing hard. The kid looked at them sitting on top of Cara's belly, pleased to see them, by the smile on his face. He was very cute, showing his small baby teeth.

Mando tapped his tiny nose before resting his hand on her hip, and then looked at her. She was blushing, and the giddy sensation in her guts came back. The things she had been ready to do. They had completely forgotten about the kid, she at least had, and was pretty sure he had too. Cara didn't want to see more than was there but he hadn't rejected her, he wasn't rejecting her now, that had to count, hadn't it?

The child leaned forward and put his head on the valley between her breasts.

"Wow!" she said.

"Hey." Mando tried to pull him apart. "Watch it, kiddo. You don't do that to a lady unless she's granted you permission."

She tickled his little belly and sides. His laughter always did something to her insides that she had never felt before. "It's no big deal, he's just a baby."

The man huffed his frustration. The words were out of her mouth before she could help it.

"Are you jealous?"

He looked at her. "Maybe."

She couldn't hide the smile that lit her face and she bit her lower lip trying to stop it.

He groaned. "Don't do that, you're driving me crazy already" he whispered under his breath.

But she had heard him. "I do?"

"You know you do." He sounded defeated.

"I didn't know, Mando." That stupid smile was still there on her face.

"Din."

"What?"

"My name's Din."

"I know." She knew, but she had thought his real name was off limits. "Din" she softly repeated, tasting the word in her tongue.

"You can call me that when we're alone."

The baby chose that moment to demand his father's attention. He reached for his helmet, as if trying to take it in his small hands.

"No, sorry kid, not tonight."

Cara fixed her eyes on him, lifting her eyebrows, silently asking for an explanation.

"Sometimes I like to sleep without my helmet on."

"But what about him? He can see you."

"He's allowed to see me. He's my foundling, my son."

"I didn't know that. You never told me." She raised herself on her elbows.

"I'm telling you now. Only the closest family can see a Mandalorian's face."

"Spouses?"

"Yes, though it is advisable to only do that in the dark and for intimacy's sake."

"So, you were pulling my leg, you do kiss."

"Yes, we do." The smile was evident in his voice, and his hand tightened at her waist.

She grabbed his shirt with mock seriousness that wasn't mocked at all. "Have you ever been married?"

The real question, though, was very clear for both of them. _Have you ever kissed anyone?_

"No."

The jolt in her chest was unexpected.

It was followed by another jolt that, this time, everybody could feel. The sign that they had jumped out of hyperspace.

"We're here."

"I should probably go and land this thing."

"Yeah, you should." She released his shirt and snuggled back under the covers. He did nothing to get up, or to move at all.

"You're cruel."

"I'm not the captain of this ship. Now go and do your job."

Putting up a show of how hard it was for him, he disentangled from her and got up. He briskly rubbed his arms up and down. "Kriff, it's freezing out here."

"Oh, c'mon. Don't be such a baby."

He warned her with a finger. "I'll remember this one, Dune. But I'll be a responsible captain. You meanwhile, by all means, please stay here, warm and cozy, and enjoy my bunk and my blankets."

"Just go!" She freely laughed, her head felt light and… good. "Din," she called when he was at the door. She threw him one of her blankets. "Take this with you".

He caught it, nodded thanks and left to the cockpit, to take them all to safe harbor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta·daaaa! At last a bit of shared intimacy. Sharing a bed is one of my favourite scenarios. So, of course I had to include it. How did you enjoy it?


	5. Ch. 5

All bazaars in every zone of every planet were basically the same. True, every one has its own particularities, like this one, where you could find a unique kind of fruit that the kid especially liked. The name of the fruit was unpronounceable, at least for Cara, and Din always had a good laugh whenever she tried to say it aloud. He suspected that she had mispronounced it on purpose more than once.

They had left the Razor Crest on the hands of a mechanic who had the spare parts they needed and looked like a decent enough guy to make a good job with it and not charge them too much.

They had two or three hours to wander around the marketplace, visit some rare goods stands and purchase munition, groceries, even some fresh vegetables and, why not, a bottle of liquor (yellow, not the green one with what looked like a dead fish inside). There were people of different species, noisily speaking a variety of languages. Sellers yelled the benefits of their goods, some stands were packed with onlookers, others were more solitary.

A pair of gloves caught Cara's attention in a shop selling winter articles. They were brown, had the inside lined with fur, and were too expensive, considering that she already own pretty good ones, she said. She judged them a frivolity and didn't buy them in the end.

"Mmh, what's that smell?" she said, lifting her nose in the air trying to locate the source of the delicious aroma. She moved to a nearby tent and to a short, rounded seller who was roasting little stripes of meat on a skewer, then pouring a dark sauce over them that made the fire crackle.

"I have to try one of those." she said to no one in particular, but the chubby man heard her and presented her with one of the meat covered sticks.

She blew to cool it down a bit, then took a morsel. And her eyes almost rolled back on her head. The sound she made was obscene. It was a low, throaty moan that went directly to his groin. He considered covering the child's ears. He certainly was grateful that his helmet hid his blush and his mesmerised expression.

"Oh, Maker, this is so good!" she ate the rest of it in less that two seconds. "I don't even want to know what this is. You have to try these, Mando. We'll take some more for you to eat them later in the ship. But now," she turned again to the seller, "please give me another one and we will have ten more to go."

They paid for the food and went on through the streets of the market, while Cara fed small chunks of meat to the child.

Eventually they arrived at one end of the populated streets. That led them to the outskirts of the town. They sat on two convenient rocks to rest and have some water, they had been walking for a long time.

"You liked it, hey, little one?" she said when the kid finished his meal. He rewarded them both with one of his big, cute smiles full of tiny teeth, then reclaimed his right to walk by himself. Cara put him down and she and Din watched him with affection while he played with small rocks in the dirt.

"Do you think he's happy?"

Cara didn't answer immediately. She gave him a knowing look.

"Of course he's happy, did you see his smile?" she narrowed her eyes. "I know where you're going. You don't think you're doing a good job with him."

"I'm not. Parenting is more difficult than I first thought. Half the time I don't have a damned clue what I'm doing."

"And you think any first-time parent do? I'm sure they just play it by ear and see what happens. Mine did, and I'm sure yours did too."

"I hope that works because that's what I'm doing." Then he added looking at her "What we're doing."

"Yeah, well, it is a lot of hard work but, look at him, it pays off." A sweet smile hovered on her features, giving him a twin smile of his own. "We must be doing some things right, don't we? We make a good team."

"Yeah, we do…"

The kid had moved away a few steps from them and he was dangerously getting closer to a slope in the nearby path too steep to Din's comfort. He stood to grab the little rascal but he continued walking the path.

"Where are you going, little womp rat?" The kid complained when Din took him in his arm.

"I think he wants to walk for a bit longer."

"Well, not in that direction, it's dangerous."

They headed back to their ship. The kid kept his ears down all the time. He was trying to emotionally blackmail them. Well, Din wasn't going to fall for that.

But once they went inside and it was time for the little tyrant to go to bed, he didn't want anything to do with Din and only asked for Cara's arms.

"I'm going to take a shower." She announced from the door of the cockpit an hour later. "The kid just fell asleep, finally, so now's the time. You keep an eye on him, it's your turn."

"Ok." he acknowledged with a hand, barely looking at her.

He was bent over the console, concentrated on the maps on the display. He traced an imaginary path through the planets he'd already visited in his quest to find the child's people. And he realized they were all located more or less on the same area of the galaxy. It was time to move out of their known territory. Going to the Core was out of question right now, it was too dangerous for Cara, that would have to be their last resort. He turned his eyes left of the map. But what about… that part of the Outer Rim…?

It was uncharted territory, he knew. Republic security wasn't guaranteed there, but then again, neither him nor Cara needed the Republic's protection, or wanted it.

There was one thing he could get out of the Core planets, though. He could get access to the Public Library of Coruscant, and not only to the regular databases, books and holovids everybody could use. Thanks to special settings, his datapad had untraceable access to restricted sections of several centers of information, official and non official, including the Library of Coruscant.

He stood to go to his room to get the datapad, but halted just outside the door of the cockpit when he heard the sound of running water at the end of the corridor. Damn! Cara was in the shower, of course. And he had to pass in front of the shower to get to his room. He peeked around the corner. The screen cloth was closed, he could cross the corridor, enter his room, grab the datapad and go back to the cockpit just like that, no harm done, she didn't even have to notice he had been there.

"You can do it." he encouraged himself.

He approached a couple steps, trying not to stare at the shower, but a hum stopped him only a few feet away. She was singing. A little off-key, and nothing recognizable, it probably wasn't even a real song. But it was a sweet, slow tune, like a lullaby. Din stood there, listening. His eyes caught a glimpse of her ankles and heat spread all over his body. There she was, so close and so out of reach. Naked at the other side of that curtain. His mouth went dry and his fingers prickled. He was doomed if only seeing her ankles put him in such a state. It was harder for his self-control now that he had seen her bare skin, and knew what it felt like to have her in his arms, and had watched her in his bed, and had had her kiss his fingers, had had her mouth on his neck.

He had to get out of that corridor. He wasn't going to act like a barbarian, open the curtain and take her against the wall.

He gave a step backwards and tripped, he had to support himself on a counter at his right. A couple of bolts rolled out of their tray and clanked on the floor. Din's blood run from his face.

"Din?" She said. "Is that you?"

"Uhm… yes, sorry."

"Is there something you need?"

"Uhm… yes, I… uh."

She peeped around the curtain. Her wet hair falling over her naked shoulder.

"Is something wrong?"

"No I uh… I need to take my uh… my datapad from my room."

"Oh, okay."

She disappeared again behind the curtain. His brain had short circuited. He didn't move. He had to get out, now. He shook his head, turned and run back to the cockpit.

He fell down on his seat and took a deep breath. _Get a grip, man_. He thought. What had just happened? He cared for Cara. She had grown on him, day by day, since he first met her. But after the other night… He had to finally admit that he wanted her. It wouldn't be a problem if he also didn't had feelings for her. It would be a casual tumble for a while, they would have a good time, and then, it's been fun, take care, see ya.

It wasn't like that with Cara. He didn't want that. Was it so wrong that he wanted to keep her? When he didn't have anything to offer?

He smoothed his hand over his helmet and sighed. What did she want with him? Maybe what she wanted was that tumble and nothing more. If that was the case, he knew he wouldn't deny it to her. Even if it meant that he would end up with a broken heart. His thoughts went back to her in the shower, to her ankles and her legs. To her body pressed against his when they sparred, on his bed, her kissing him, to the sweet curve of her waist and her hips, her beautiful eyes, her beautiful mouth, the way she looked at him.

He moved still uncomfortable in his pants. When she finished _he_ was going to need a shower, a cold one. He turned back to the console and the maps, and only then did he realise that he hadn't picked up his datapad.

The following morning, when Din woke up he was surprised that the kid was not sleeping in his room. It wasn't like him to stay mad for long. He was probably in Cara's cabin.

There was light at the end of the corridor coming from the lower level. That meant Cara was awake.

"Morning" he said, climbing down the ladder.

"Hi." She was mixing dried cereal with milk and water to make a porridge, the usual first meal of the day for the kid.

"Where's the little one?"

"Over there."

She nodded to her left over her shoulder to where the kid was sitting on the closed ramp, his back to them.

"What's he doin'?" Din asked as he approached the small green baby.

"I don't know, he's been like that for a while now, just looking at the wall."

"Hey, what's up, ad'ika? Is this what you wanted last night? To come sit here?" the Mandalorian picked his charge up in his arms and brought him to where they usually fed him. He cooed and looked at him with his big, dark eyes.

"Last night?" Cara asked.

"Last night, when we went to bed, he kept trying to crawl back down here."

"Well, it's clear that he wants to go out."

Din crouched to level with the kid and looked into his eyes as if that ensured that he understood.

"Is that so?"

The baby didn't answer him of course, instead he turned his rounded head and kept his attention on the door.

"Is he ignoring us?" Cara placed two bowls of breakfast on the table.

"I don't think so."

Din sat next to his charge and helped him take his meal while Cara ate hers. He would eat later in his cabin. He had gotten used to sit at the table during meals with them though, he missed that when it wasn't possible. The Mandalorian enjoyed these short moments of peace and happiness that had been so rare before he met the baby. And Cara. The help was much appreciated but it was the company that he cherished the most. The friendship. The partnership.

"This is what we'll do. We finish eating and cleaning after, and when we're ready we'll go out for a last walk before we leave the planet. OK?"

The kid cooed again and tried to grab his spoon from Din's hand with his little three fingered claw.

"I guess that's a yes." Cara said.

The weather outside the ship was nice, it wasn't too hot since it was still early in the morning. The soil was dry and there was little vegetation in this area. Almost the whole planet had a warm climate. The terrain was arid, alternating a series of shallow ponds of various sizes with big chunks of rocky desert.

At first they wandered around in the direction of the market they had visited yesterday, following the kid's slow pace. But soon it was clear that he was leading them to the point where they had stopped to rest just at one end of the village. Not only that, when they arrived there, he kept walking very decidedly towards the slope he had already tried to climb down the day before.

"Well, he sure knows what he wants" Cara pointed.

Down the hill, the path went along the edge of higher ground the color of sand on its right, and a narrow stream of water that one could easily walk over on the left side. It looked pretty innocent from where they were.

"Is that where you want to go?"

As an answer, the kid leaned his head to one side and kept walking his tiny steps forward.

"Alright, let's go."

They went on. They passed by veins of smooth rocks, rounded by the effect of the water and the wind through the centuries.

"This land must have been under water many years ago."

"Maybe."

"I can smell the sea."

She walked two steps ahead, leaving both of them behind, as if following the trail of a smell he hadn't caught because of the filters in his helmet.

"Is that what you want, little one? Do you want to go to the sea?"

He turned his cute face to them and resumed his stroll.

"Do you think he knows where he's going?"

"Who knows? I think he does, somehow."

There wasn't really a path to follow anymore, only massive rock formations, and they kept walking between them. Din decided he would humor the child and let him walk for a bit longer before they would turn back to the Crest.

A small lizard crossed in front of them. He thought that the kid would try to catch it, but it quickly disappeared inside of a crevice on the wall of rock they were surrounding.

Cara kept walking in front of the child. Din was behind him, protecting his back. It moved him to see her unconsciously protecting the kid too. She looked gorgeous leading their little expedition, ready to jump at the first sign of danger. What a wonderful companion she would make. He kept trying not to imagine a future that was so far from his current lifestyle. To have a partner for life? Impossible. But when he looked at Cara, it felt so right and so natural.

The kid stopped a couple of meters away from a wide rock as tall as its sisters. There was nothing special about it by its looks, but it had caught the kid's attention.

"What is it, little one?" Din asked. "Are you looking for something? There's nothing there."

"Come on, let's go back" Cara suggested.

"I think he is looking for me" an unknown voice said.

From behind the rock a man came out with his hands raised in the universal sign of peace.

Cara and Din's own hands rushed to their blasters.

"Who are you?!"

"I'm not an enemy."

The man was blonde, dressed all in black and carried no weapons. He walked slowly towards them. He had a gentle smile and gentle blue eyes that he fixed on the child with awe. Din relaxed a little, he didn't looked like a threat.

"This is amazing. I never thought I'd meet someone like him again."

"Again?" Cara came even closer to Din and the child, like a pack of wolves would do.

"Someone like him?" Din pointed to the kid.

"A long time ago I met someone who looked very much like this little one, except he was much older."

"This is my adopted son, he is still a baby."

"Why did you say that he was looking for you?"

"I'm pretty sure that he is like me."

"What? No, he's nothing like you!"

"He sensed me, as I sensed him. He knew I was here."

Cara gave him a meaningful glance. Din was reticent to give up too much information, but he had to know, he had to take the risk and ask.

"Are you a Jedi?"

The man didn't stop smiling.

"Yes, Mandalorian, I am. And up until now, I thought that me and my sister were the last."

The three of them turned to the child, who looked back at them with his big, innocent eyes.

"We need to know all you can tell us about the Jedi and his people, we are looking for them."

"I'll help you, I'll tell you all I know, but not here. Come with me."

"Wait. Where?"

"To some place where the walls don't have ears."

Cara and Din exchanged looks again, would it be madness to follow this stranger? But they had each other's backs. If they wanted to get something out of this, they had to trust him.

"Alright. You can call me Mando. And this is Cara Dune."

The young man smiled at them again.

"I'm Luke Skywalker."


	6. Ch. 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! I'm sorry it took me so long. You've probably noticed (or not) that the chapter count has increased by one. I've added another chapter because it made sense to split the last one in two. And it was taking too long to post it.
> 
> So, a brief reminder of what happened previously:
> 
> Our trio arrives on a planet and go to the market. The kid wants to explore. However, they go back to the ship and we have the shower scene.
> 
> The next day it's clear that the child wants something on this planet. They decide to humor him and they meet with none other than Luke Skywalker.

The cave was small. Water had carved its smooth walls through the centuries. They were shiny when the light fell upon their surface in the right angle. The air smelled like the sea.

"Are you a hermit?" Cara approached a set of boulders protruding from the floor, they served as perfect seats and gave the place the impression of a living room.

"Not really." Luke smiled.

"But you live here. The table, those blankets and that bag."

"I come here often and usually stay for a few weeks. The people in this planet are quite friendly and they don't mess around with my business. I like to come here when I need peace and quiet to train and meditate."

"And what are those businesses of yours?" Din's tone sounded a little suspicious. But Luke didn't look offended.

"Jedi things" he said. He had spoken with a serious, almost menacing air, but the good humor was obvious to Cara. Not so much to Din who, by his posture, was analyzing every single word the young man was saying, looking for potential clues that marked him as a friend or a foe.

"So, you are a Jedi" she asked putting emphasis on Jedi.

"I am. At least I trained like one and kept doing it since, for a long time now."

"And you said that your sister is one too?"

"And my nephew, I think. She stopped training, but she's Force sensitive too."

"Force sensitive?"

"The Force. You know, the energy that flows around us, and through us, and brings balance to all living things, and even the dead I suspect."

"He lifted a mudhorn and stopped a wall of fire with his mind."

"Yes, that was the Force. I sense it in him, and it's very strong."

"He sensed you as well?"

"I assume so."

Din was looking at his child. Cara guessed what he was thinking when he turned his head in her direction. The kid had been a mystery from the beginning, not only for his powers or his unique species but also because they didn't know what was that the Empire wanted from him. And now that they finally were getting some answers, the more they learned, the more complicated the riddle got.

"But please, have a seat, where are my manners."

The three of them sat down, with the kid in Din's lap, held in the safe arms of his father, but not keeping his eyes off Luke. The man smiled at him.

"It's amazing. It's like looking at a much, much younger Master Yoda."

"Master… Yoda?"

"He was my master, the one who taught me everything about the Jedi after Master Obi Wan died."

"You had two masters? How many of you are there? We thought the Jedi were extinct."

"And we are. All the Jedi I knew are dead."

"I'm sorry. This Master Yoda too?"

"Yes, he died peacefully at almost 900, and now he is one with the Force."

"900 years old?"

"Aha. How old is this little one?"

"He's still a baby but he's 50 already, well, 51 I guess." Din answered, and added more to himself than anyone else. "I think it makes sense."

"Do you… do you know anything of this species?"

"No, I'm sorry. Master Yoda was the first one like him that I ever met. Never saw another one, until now."

"And this Force. Was he very powerful in it?"

"Oh, yes. The most powerful Jedi of his time."

"Could it be that it runs in the species? Could have something to do with genetics. You said that your family is Force sensitive too."

"Could be. This child seems powerful too, for being so young. Can't imagine what he'd be capable of with a bit of training."

"Training?"

For someone who didn't know Din as well as she did, that simple word wouldn't sound strange. But Cara perceived a hint of panic in his voice and in the way his head snapped to Luke.

"One doesn't become a Jedi overnight. It takes training, years of training. One must dedicate themselves heart and soul to it. It's very hard, but it's worth it."

Din stood up and went to the other side of the cave, near the entrance. The kid reached out his arms in Luke's direction. Din stroked his head.

Cara looked between the two men before she stood too and went to the Mandalorian.

"What happens?" She asked in a hushed voice.

"He want's to train the baby as a Jedi."

"Uhm… Din, he didn't say that."

"He needn't say it, I can guess. Look at him. He's found another one who has the Force and now he wants to train him, for years. Who wouldn't?"

"Din. Look at me."

He did.

"Your child's not going anywhere unless you're alright with it. Nobody's taking him away. I'll make sure of it."

Din's breathing went slowly back to normal. Cara put her hands on his forearms, cocooning the kid in their arms.

"He's going to be alright. Let him explore for himself for a bit. Luke won't harm him, I know, I have a feeling."

"A feeling?"

She smiled for an answer.

He put the child on the floor and they watched him waddled to the younger man.

Luke welcomed him with his gentle smile and crouched before him.

"Hi" he said.

The child moved his short fingers and a small rock went floating up in the air next to them. Luke moved his hand and he lifted a few more pebbles. The child smiled, the pebbles started a shy dance around them that gained momentum, in perfect harmony. The child laughed. The rocks stopped and fell to the floor. The child took his Mythosaur pendant and lifted it so that Luke could have a good look at it.

"Beautiful" he said.

Cara was still next to Din, he hadn't taken off the arm he had put around her. She rested her hands on his chest. Once again she could look right through his armor into his soul, like she had done that night they had shared a bed not so long ago.

She needed him to feel her close. She threw her arms around his neck and held him. His arms snaked to her back. His warmth felt very nice. She tightened her embrace, glad that he had accepted it.

He slightly rocked them back and forth for a bit. He sighed before pulling apart enough to look at her, with a hand on her cheek.

If it weren't for that helmet…

"He might want to train as a Jedi when he's older" she whispered. "But as long as he's your son, he's a Mandalorian."

He remained silent, his hand stilled on her face. A nod, and a thank you, breathed through his helmet.

"You and your wife can-"

But they never learned what Din and _his wife_ could do because, at the same time Luke spoke, a raging sound pierced the tranquility of the sky. A horrific scream that they had already heard once in Nevarro. A TIE fighter.

Din reacted with quick reflexes, like the bounty hunter he was. Blaster in hand, he picked up the child and put him in Cara's arms.

"Don't take your eyes off him."

He went to the entrance of the cave before she could argue. With his back to the wall, he cautiously peeked outside. Cara watched him holding her breath, fighting the urge to grab her own blaster and go with him.

"No!" Din said. "It's not possible."

"What?! What's happening?"

The Mandalorian didn't have to answer because a deep, authoritarian voice shouted loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Din Djarin, we know you're there, and we know you have the asset with you. Give it to me and no one will suffer. Refuse and the child dies."

"It can't be!" Cara gasped. "You killed him!"

"That's what I thought."

"Who is that?" Luke asked.

"Moff Gideon."

"A Moff? Here in this planet?"

"They're after the child."

"The Empire wants your child?" Luke said, surprised, then he realized. "Oh, they know about his powers."

"Yes. An imperial warlord hired me to find him, the bounty was the highest I'd ever seen. When I retrieved him back there was a doctor doing things on him."

"He was tracking us. It was him all the time."

"Yes."

"Well, we defeated him once, we can do it again, for good."

"You two stay here with the child. I count on you to protect him."

"And who will protect you? I'm going with you."

"Cara, please, there's no one I trust more with this than you."

Cara felt his eyes focused on her with intent.

"Have you decided, Din Djarin? I'm a patient man but this has been too long." Gideon said with his strong voice, amplified by the echo bouncing in the rocky walls of the canyon outside.

"Alright, but I will watch your back from here" she accepted.

"I can help, it's not the first imperial I've dealt with."

"You two stay here. And watch over the kid. This is between Gideon and me."

He turned back to the entrance, and covering himself as best he could, fired the first shots.

Cara pressed her lips in a thin line, frustrated, but she stayed inside the cave, holding the child to her chest.

"Damn! He's too far" Din said, then went out of the cave before the stunned eyes of Cara and Luke.

There was little coverage outside, except for a few big boulders here and there. Din took advantage of that to get to a shooting distance from Gideon. Cara wasn't going to let him kill himself. She passed the kid to Luke.

"Hide him and keep him safe, please, he is the most precious thing we have. But I have to help Din, I have to."

Luke nodded. And Cara went out of the cave too.

She was an excellent shooter, but even for her, Gideon was too far to hit him. She approached too, covering wherever she could. Gideon and Din were so absorbed trying to kill each other that no one noticed her.

She approached them from the side and aimed her blaster at Moff Gideon. It wasn't easy, he kept moving, dodging Din's shots. Something must have happened to his blaster because he threw it away and, from under his cape, he produced something long that shone with… dark light? If she didn't know better, she would say it was a sword.

"No!" Din shouted. "Where did you steal that?!"

"I didn't steal it from anyone. The Dark Saber is rightfully mine."

"You're lying!"

Cara didn't know what they were talking about but the distraction was very welcome. Gideon stopped dancing around and stood now at shooting distance. She aimed the blaster, closed one eye to make sure she hit him square in his head, and… didn't shoot because another roar passed above them in that moment.

Was that another TIE?

No, it wasn't another attacking ship. It was a transport. Full of stormtroopers that immediately crowded the esplanade that had been quiet and empty minutes ago. They were everywhere. Cara hid behind a rock, she didn't even know where to shoot her gun.

"Leave the Mandalorian and the baby to me, it's in the cave" Moff Gideon instructed the soldiers. "But take care of the woman and the other one, we don't need more prisoners."

"No! Cara, get back, get back!" Din sounded desperate too. "It's me who you want, let her be!"

"Oh, that's very chivalrous of you. But no. Fire!" Gideon commanded.

Mayhem ensued. Blaster and rifle shoots flew in every direction. Cara tried to take down as much as she could from where she was hiding. She even saw Din trying to cope with both Gideon and the stormtroopers. But it was too much. She had to move, take better cover back in the cave, before anyone of those bastards came near the baby.

But then a blur of blue light came out of the cave. Luke was charging against the troopers with something that resembled Gideon's sword, but with a different kind of light. And hells did he know how to wield it. She had heard stories of light sabers while she was a part of the Rebels, of course. But that's what she thought it was, what everybody took them for: stories, good to lift spirits in the darkest hours, to give hope when it was most needed.

And that's what Luke had just given her. The way he moved among the troopers, so fast that it was almost impossible to follow. The soldiers didn't even know what to do with their weapons, a few tried to flee. Cara took good care of those. Luke was amazing, a new hope that they could win and get out of here alive.

But a scream got her out of her reverie. It was Din. A cold sweat run down her back.

"No" she tried to say, but she couldn't get enough air in her lungs to speak. "Please, no."

Din was sprawled on the floor, he had fallen on his back. Cara looked at Luke, they had almost finished with the stormtroopers. She run towards Gideon, firing her blaster like a madwoman.

"Die, you bastard!"

Gideon recoiled a little, dodging her shoots with his saber.

"Din!" she yelled when she arrived by the Mandalorian's side. No answer.

"He's dead."

"No!"

"This weapon can cut through beskar steel."

"I'm going to kill you!"

"You can't."

"But we can!" a voice shouted at her right. It was Luke, light saber in hand and already storming against the Moff.

Gideon retreated a bit more. He stumbled on his steps back.

"Help your Mandalorian to the cave! I'll take care of this!"

"Ok!"

She turned to Din, praying "Please don't be dead, please don't be dead, not you."

And she froze at what she saw. There was blood running down his breastplate. The blood came from a gash across his helmet, and across his face.

She knew she shouldn't look, she knew this was forbidden. No one could see his face. This was forbidden. Yet she couldn't take her eyes off him. She had to make sure he was alive.

"Din!" She pounded his chest. "Din!" She hit him harder. "Din!"

The Mandalorian coughed and gasped for air.

"Oh, gods, you're alive."

With her help, he sat up, inhaling deeply.

"Where's Gideon?" he could barely speak.

"Luke's taking care of that, come on, think you can walk?"

"I have to… " he coughed "It's my duty…"

"Come on, you're about to pass out, we have to get to the cave."

He tried to reach for his weapon, but he was too weak.

"It's not the time to act stubborn."

"Look who's talking."

"I'm going to kill you myself if these wounds don't."

With the Mandalorian leaning on her, they walked to the cave as fast as they could. Cara had the time to look over her shoulder and catch a glimpse of the young Jedi still attacking Moff Gideon, while parrying the loose blaster shots from the remaining troopers. She fired her weapon and took another one down, but she had to continue to the cave. She had to get Din to safety. They walked between the bodies of the dead troopers.

Once inside the cave, they collapsed on the floor. Cara made him sit, leaning on the wall, and she took a moment to catch her breath. She still was trying not to look at him straight. But she saw him lift his hand to his wound and look at how it came covered in blood.

" _Shab_. Are you sure Luke's going to be ok?"

"He'll manage."

"Where's the kid?"

"Uhm…" She didn't know where Luke put him. He had probably hidden him well enough.

"Ad'ika! It's ok, you can come out."

A few feet away, a pile of cloths and boxes moved. A big rounded eye looked at them from behind an old woolen blanket. Cara looked at the entrance, then at the child.

"There you are."

The little one run as fast as his short legs allowed him to his father's arms, making sounds that were half gurgles, half cries all the time. The kid palmed him on his armor, and on his head and face, while starting a series of babblings as a welcome speech, happy to see the Mandalorian alive. He was probably scolding him too, for leaving him and coming back wounded.

"No, kid, don't. It's dangerous for you here. Cara please, take him."

"What happens?"

"He's trying to heal me."

Cara understood. The child couldn't be more vulnerable before they arrived at the Crest, and he always felt weak after using his powers. She couldn't blame him though, she would have tried to cure Din too if she was able to, even if she had to risk her own life for it. That was something she had known for a long time now.

She took the kid from Din. When the little hands pulled from his face, there was almost no blood left on the wound. And a dark brown eye was looking straight at her.

She stared. It was him, it was his eye, an open window to an intimate part of him. Not meant for anyone to see, not anyone who wasn't…

She lowered her eyes, bowing her head, holding to the child for comfort.

"I'm sorry" she said.

He was quiet. He must be furious at her. His deep breath was the only sound in the cave.

Until they heard rushed steps nearing. Cara had the time to improvise a cover and, by instinct, she threw Din's cape over his head.

"I'm sorry!" Luke appeared short of breath, a cylinder in his right hand and blood on his other arm.

"What happened? You're hurt!"

"It's nothing. What's he doing?"

Din was fumbling with his cape.

"No, don't take it off!" she commanded in a tone that made it clear she wouldn't take no for an answer. "Nobody can see his face, it's his Mandalorian code. But he's hurt. Tell me Moff Gideon is dead."

"I'm sorry, he flew away. I couldn't get to him fast enough."

"No! I should have gone to him!"

"Then you'd be dead!" Cara held Din by his shoulders to keep him seated and his turban in place. "Calm down, you need to rest. Luke, you don't happen to have some kind of med-pack or something with you, do you?"

"Not here. I have them on my ship, that's hidden not far from here."

"I know we're already asking too much, but-"

"Nonsense. Wait here, I won't be long."

"Thank you, Luke."

"Be right back."

And as quickly as he had arrived, he was leaving again.

The Mandalorian was coughing and trying to free his face from all the fabric covering it.

"Are you trying to suffocate me?"

"I was trying to save your dignity."

Din put his cape down. She averted her eyes. She knew it was useless, she had already seen him, even if it was just an eye and a patch of skin. But she couldn't help it. Looking at him again would be like rubbing salt into the wound.

"Cara, look at me."

"I can't."

He took another deep breath.

"You've already seen me."

"I know! I'm sorry." She was still clinging to the kid. He wasn't complaining but she relaxed a bit her grip, she didn't want to hurt him.

But then Din's hands disappeared from her field of vision and when they came back, they were carrying his head. Not his head, of course, but his helmet.

"Have you gone mad?! Put that back on!"

"I can't."

"We'll discuss details later. Put it on before Luke comes back."

"Cara, look at me."

"You don't know what you're saying. You passed out, you wounded your head. Please don't be stubborn."

"Cara, it's not your fault, please look at me. I need you to look at me."

He needed her? That was a low blow. Din put his helmet aside and motioned to take the baby in his hands from her. Cara let him. By the happy coos and the sounds of it, she was sure that the child was patting Din's face. Yes, she remembered that this was not the first time Din had shown himself to his son.

"Yes, it's alright. You don't need to cure me. Luke is going to help me. Alright. That's it." His kind voice was soothing. She knew it was meant to calm the baby but it started the same effect on her.

Din took one of her hands in his and squeezed gently. That wasn't fair. Her resolution was vanishing by the minute. Oh, gods, she was going to do it, she was going to look at him.

When she did, the chin of a stranger, the mouth and nose of a stranger, the cheeks of a stranger welcomed her. There was a man sitting where Din had been moments ago. He was wearing Din's dirty armor and her heart skipped a beat seeing that he also had the kid in his arms, she almost reached to take him back.

But when she saw his eyes, there it was, the same eye that had looked at her behind Din's helmet. Beautiful, calm black eyes that were looking at her with tenderness, and demanded of her only trust.

"Hi" he said with a small smile, one she couldn't help returning.

She slightly shook her head.

"What have you done?"

He squeezed her hand again. He looked like hell. He was sweating, his black, unruly hair went in every direction, his clothes and armor were torn and dirty and he had an adorable pout on his mouth. He looked rather attractive. And here she was thinking these things at a critical moment like that.

"It's strange. I thought, if this ever happened, that I'd feel distraught, betrayed, angry. But I don't feel any different. It's like… the right thing to do."

"But it's not. It's wrong. This shouldn't have happened."

He sat up a bit straighter, closer to her.

"It's alright, if it's with you." He brought his hand to her nape so that he could have her even closer and touched her forehead with his.

Oh, she knew how to do this. She closed her eyes and took deep, slow breaths. They had already done this once, but now she could feel his breath on her cheek, his nose caressing hers.

"This is even better without the helmet" he said.

They opened their eyes but didn't pull apart, only an inch away. Her mouth was dry, he looked at it. His eyes set a fire within her. She knew what he was thinking, she wanted it too. She hesitated for a fraction of a second. And then his mouth was on hers, pressing against her lips for an eternal moment, before he moved and his warm breath ignited her senses. He sucked at the corner of her mouth, and at her lower lip, then the upper, as if he couldn't decide were to start eating her.

She kissed him, with all her being, not holding back anything. It was the sweetest thing she'd ever tasted, and the most exciting thing she had ever done.

She put her hands on his shoulders, he held her in his arms, and didn't stop kissing her, with a passion she wouldn't have expected. He had said he'd never kissed anyone, she was starting to doubt he had told the truth.

They kept kissing, neither willing to end it. But at some point they had to stop and come up for air.

"I don't know how to kiss and breathe at the same time, but I will learn."

She laughed. "Promise?"

"If you teach me."

Her grin widened, and when he smiled too, there was a dimple on his right cheek.

The kid gurgled, reaching at them with his little claws. He was trying to rub his face against Din's.

"Oh, you want kisses too, little green bean?"

Din bathed the kid's tiny face and head in noisy smooches, making the little menace giggle in the most adorable way. Kids had never been her thing but she was still arguing with her ovaries when the child turned to her and stamped his wrinkled baby face against hers. Her motherly instinct kicked her in the guts. It took her one second to recover and copy what Din had done before. She kissed their small charge everywhere, on his tiny nose, on his crinkled forehead, on top of his head and all over his face, adding some extra noises that seemed to please him because he started making them too.

"You like getting all the attention, don't you? Don't worry, we love you" Din said as he stroked his back.

Did she love him? Yes, she did. She liked to think that what she had with these two was more like an addiction. But she couldn't deny any longer that she had fallen in love with this pair of dorks without even noticing.

Din sought her eyes. She gave him a reassuring smile.

"I think we're spoiling this little brat" he said.

"Oh, we are."

She couldn't take her eyes off him. That man in front of her was Din. That was the face of the man she knew, the man she had fought with, laughed with, lived through so much.

"We have to find a way to cover your face before Luke comes back. Unless you don't care people seeing you anymore."

He thought about it for a moment.

"No, you're right. I don't feel like showing my face to anyone else, not yet."

They managed to transform his cape into a decent kind of hood, obscuring his face to the world but allowing him to see what was in front.

The young Jedi arrived short after, carrying two pots of bacta and some bandages. The cut wasn't deep and the kid had done most of the work healing him. If the helmet hadn't been made of beskar steel, Din would be dead, or at least he'd had lost an eye. Cara applied the bacta while Luke turned his back to them. He was picking up things and putting them together in backpacks, the kid was looking at him with curious eyes.

"Are you leaving?" She cleaned her hands on her pants and helped Din get to his feet.

"Yes," Luke said "I think it's time to move on, in case more imperials decide to check out what happened here."

"Luke, you saved us. Let us treat you to a warm meal and see to your wound. It's the least we can do." Cara looked at Din for his reaction.

He nodded. "Please."

"That would be great, thank you." His smile was back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta-da! How did you like it? How are you feeling? This chapter is very special for me. The scene of the broken helmet and Din taking it off is half of the reason why this fiction exists. It's what gave me the idea and the point where I wanted to get. The other half comes in the next chapter.
> 
> Thank you all for your kudos and comments, they are much appreciated ❤


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